Choosing to love: Hatred is never the answer

On June 26, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide.

Hate, blunt words and prejudices have been displayed on both sides of this culture war.

Though we all have different views on the matter, we should stop making prejudiced judgment toward one another.

Love is love, and each individual now has the right to choose whom they will marry. It is a closed matter. We can’t change the ruling now.

The real concern is how we are going to react to it and if we are going to stoop down to persecuting our fellow peers based on whom they choose to love.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had his own rash statement to make, saying conservatives need to stand up and fight against the ruling.

He encouraged others to draft a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

“I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch,” Huckabee said. “We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat.”

Those who are against the ruling have been receiving their own form of unjust treatment, as each side is willing to put up a fight.

“Welcome to the new world,” said Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. “It’s just changed for you Christians. You are going to be persecuted.”

Why do we have to hate each other? The beautiful thing about this country is the freedom that we have to choose.

All of us, whether it be our ethnicity, religion or our stance on marriage, should at least be given the same privilege of being able to choose what we want to do with our own lives.

“In a country as diverse as ours, good people who have opposing views should be able to live side by side,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “It is now crucial that as a country we protect religious freedom and the right of conscience and also not discriminate.”

The prejudice that has spread its way across the country has also made its way more aggressively into how we speak and view one another and this needs to stop.

“Consider putting aside, in the current climate, the culture war oriented around the sexual revolution,” according to The New York Times.

Many are getting heated over whether our votes matter anymore since they have been overruled in the past and this whole ruling, perhaps, was done the wrong way.

Although this might be so, same-sex marriage has been passed whether we like it or not. Everyone deserves love in their life because it is what makes life better, more fulfilling, and it is also allows us to find a more selfless heart towards serving one another.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not for this ruling to allow gay marriage, but is taking a stance to still respect those who have same-sex attraction.

“With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters,” according to the Mormons and Gays, the Church’s official website on same-sex attraction.

It is not anyone’s right to discriminate against any person no matter what their stance is on same-sex marriage being allowed.

“Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants themthat right.”

Equal dignity is what we should be trying to spread in our community, whether for or against same-sex marriage, instead of this culture war that we have put ourselves in.

“Americans should be very proud because small acts of courage slowly made an entire country realize that love is love,” said President Barack Obama at a White House address.

Love is love, and we should not hate our peers just because they choose a different lifestyle. This world has enough hate already.